Research
Tammy Clegg’s research leverages STEM learning, community-based technology, and young people’s everyday skills and insight to help them become ambassadors for equity and justice in their community. Tammy designs life-relevant STEM learning experiences, where learning is situated in and relevant to young people’s interests, culture, and values, particularly those from resource-constrained, minoritized communities.
While Tammy’s earlier work has focused on promoting young people’s science inquiry skills, her most recent work focuses on their critical data literacy development, which emphasizes both the technical and socio-technical aspects of young people’s engagement with data science practices. In her work, Tammy draws on participatory design methods with young people and communities to design new learning experiences, technology, and infrastructures for young people in resource-constrained minoritized communities.
She designs and develops social media tools, wearable sensing tools, and community based technologies (e.g., multi-touch displays). Situating the tools within rich community contexts, Tammy and her collaborators then conduct longitudinal, ethnographic studies of youth, young people’s and community members’ disposition and identity development.
Current Projects
DataGOAT – This project in collaboration with Erianne Weight at the University of North Carolina and Dan Greene at Maryland’s INFO College, focuses on understanding and promoting NCAA (collegiate) athletes’ critical data literacy in the context of their sports play and participation.
SPE4K (Security and Privacy Education for Kids) – Marshini Chetty (University of Chicago), Jessica Vitak (UMD INFO College), Tammy, and students have been conducting research to understand elementary school children’s understanding of and experiences with online privacy and security and designing tools and classroom micro-lessons to help them develop online privacy and security skills.
Teen Ambassadors Promoting Privacy Education through Data (TAPPED) – In this project researchers at the University of Chicago (PI Marshini Chetty) and Maryland’s INFO College (PIs Jessica Vitak, Sheena Erete, and Tammy Clegg) are helping young people in minoritized, resource-constrained community learn about and enhance their understanding of online privacy and security concepts through becoming privacy and security ambassadors in their local communities.
#KeepDatafying: Youth Critical Data Literacy for Environmental Justice – In this project, Tammy is collaborating with Elizabeth Bonsignore and Andrew Fellows in Maryland’s INFO College and Marccus Hendricks in the School of Architecture at UMD as well as local school and community partners. We are leveraging Internet of Things (IoT) sensors and critical data literacy learning experiences to help youth advocate for their local community’s environmental concerns with school and municipality leaders.
Navigating Ethics in Technology (NET+) – In collaboration with Katie Shilton at Maryland’s INFO College and students in the INFO College and Education, Tammy is co-designing ethics undergraduate learning experiences for INFO Studies majors (Information Science, Social Data Science, and Technology and Information Design majors).